Mesh Edit Panel

The imprint subpanel is used to cause mesh from different, overlapping components to sync or line up with each other, in order to facilitate better connection modeling between them.

Mesh Imprint is useful for cases such as brackets that hold parts together, or any time that two different parts (components) must be fastened to one another. By causing the meshes on the separate components to match up on a node-by-node basis, connections such as welds, adhesives, or even bolts can be modeled more accurately.

In this example, the underlying tube is remeshed to match the plate, although both meshes are retained.
Mesh Imprint is also used for connectors to resolve issues in which the quad-based transition meshes of close-set connectors can interfere with each other.

The remain: source / destination / both switch is used to pick which of the original meshes will remain. In the examples below, the blue plate is the source, while the orange tube is the destination:

Using remain: source

Using remain: destination

Using remain: both (note that there are two layers of blue mesh now--the original
component mesh and the destination imprint.

The elems to destination comp option actually absorbs the imprint source elements into the destination component, discarding the original components mesh. It is similar to the remain: destination option, except that the end result is the modified mesh within the destination component only:

Use the extend subpanel to create smoothly-meshed connections between different components that do not quite touch, but are meant to. Mesh can be imprinted such that both components are remeshed to match, or the source comp is remeshed to match the destination comp, or vice-versa. In addition, you can actually merge the elements of the source component into the destination component altogether.

Mesh Extension is particularly useful in situations when discontinuous meshes need to be joined cleanly. The angle at which they join is not a limitation.

Here, one component (pink) is extended to join two others (blue and tan).

The projection: setting provides three options: along tangent, normal to destination and along vector. These three options determine the direction that the extension occurs: along the tangent of the source, normal to the destination (not recommended for curved destination surfaces), or along a vector defined via standard plane and vector selector.

Projection: along tangent	Projection: normal to destination

The remesh destination: setting allows contains 3 options: stitch only, layers, and all. This setting determines to what extent the target/destination mesh can be remeshed to accommodate the extended nodes' positions. Stitch only performs no remesh; layers allows you to specify a maximum number of rows or layers of elements surrounding the extension that can be part of the remesh (much like washer layers); and all will potentially remesh the entire destination component in an effort to produce the best mesh that matches the extended nodes' positions.

Stitch Only used on destination

Stitch Only with Remesh Extension used on destination

With Layers - 5 layers but no remesh used on extension.